Perhaps you really cannot have your cake and eat it too.
During the Wellington council, Rod Ritchie and Judy Barrass vocally decried the evils of short stay letting, urging Council to do something about it. Now they each write to complain (Noosa Today 13 January) about the quantum of legally forced short term accommodation approvals which have resulted from regulating STAs via the planning scheme.
In 2019, councillors Brian Stockwell and Frank Wilkie led the charge with then mayor Wellington to constrain short term letting through the Noosa planning scheme by making STAs ’inconsistent’ in low density residential zones.
I voted against that approach and against the new Noosa Plan for that reason.
I pointed to Barcelona City Council’s model, where property owners can pay for licenses annually, if available. Barcelona council is able to set differing license numbers for different precincts (none, few, many) and can crank the settings up or down as needed by circumstances.
I argued that one of the problems with putting the onus on the planning scheme was rigidity.
Once a property is approved for short term accommodation, the approval is attached to the property forever. And when economic circumstances and community needs change, there is no flexibility – it is not possible to change the settings.
The new Noosa Plan only came to a final vote after the 2020 elections.
Mayor Clare Stewart and Cr Amelia Lorentson did not vote for the Noosa Plan because of the STA provisions. But they were outnumbered. And the unintended consequences were to be borne by Cr Clare Stewart’s council.
It turned out that under the Queensland Planning Act, if a planning scheme is changed, for a period of 12 months owners can make applications under the superseded scheme. (There was no such thing as STAs being inconsistent in the 2006 Noosa Plan. The detached house definition allowed for short term accommodation.)
Also, there are existing use rights which mean if houses have a couple of years proven history of being short term let before the planning scheme change, council is obliged to approve the STA applications.
The upshot is that making STAs at houses inconsistent saw a rush of applications which could not be knocked back under the law. That has been the unforeseen consequence of entrenching the rules in the planning scheme.
But the time for such retrospective applications has now passed, so few further approvals are likely.
Now in the latest Noosa Today, Rod Ritchie and Judy Barrass bemoan the number of STAs that have been approved since STAs were made inconsistent, seemingly laying this at the feet of Mayor Clare.
As if she could have prevented it.
Ritchie correctly points out that mooted planning scheme changes to make STAs inconsistent in medium and high density zones are likely to lead to a similar outcome – a rush of applications under the superseded scheme and existing use rights.
Unfortunately Ritchie and Barrass offer no solutions. Only the same old complaint.
My response? Give me the Barcelona model any time.
